Senator ALSTON (Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) (12:43 PM) —To the extent that these matters are built into the USO, arrangements such as the 50 per cent subsidy will be a matter for recoupment from the industry. Beyond that, we do not need to regulate the price of these services because the ACCC has already made ISDN a declared service, which means that in due course, if wholesalers such as AAPT are not able to negotiate what they regard as a fair and reasonable price for interconnect arrangements, they will be able to have those matters arbitrated upon by the ACCC. So it is a very significant advance. It is very much consistent with the part 11B and C regime that is now in place and which, I believe, is working effectively, although there are always refinements and improvements that one can consider. We will look at some of those a little later. I think the fact that this has already been made a declared service is a very big step ahead.

I am not aware of the suggestion by Senator Allison that somehow Telstra has jacked up the rates in recent times. I am certainly aware of concerns that ISDN pricing has been non-competitive, and I have shared those concerns, because there have not been other players in the marketplace. It has been a suspicion of mine for quite a while that it was being priced as a premium product rather than a commodity.

Progress reported.